Scriptural Foundations (Part 4/10): Chronological Snobbery

Introduction: In one of his many wise writings, G.K. Chesterton wrote, “Real development is not leaving things behind, as on a road, but drawing life from them, as from a root.” 

And C.S. Lewis penned this wisdom which runs in similar grooves: “It’s a good rule after reading a new book never to allow yourself another new one till you have read an old one in between. If that is too much for you, you should at least read one old one to three new ones . . . . Every age has its own outlook. It is especially good at seeing certain truths and especially liable to make certain mistakes. We all therefore need the books that will correct the characteristic mistakes of our own period . . . . None of us can fully escape this blindness, but we shall certainly increase it, and weaken our guard against it, if we read only modern books . . . . The only palliative is to keep the clean sea breeze of the centuries blowing through our minds and this can only be done by reading old books.”

Connection to Our Day: Sometimes I look around at churches and I am so encouraged because I see seasoned saints whose Bibles are worn out. Their pages are thin and supple from years and years of reading, writing, and the turning of their leaves. It is dangerous of course to assume that just because someone reads her Bible a lot that he/she has an accurate understanding of its contents. I grew up hearing “Where two or three are gathered in my name” passage was a palliative for slim attendance at Wednesday night prayer meeting. But of course that passage has nothing to do with that, but it is rather about church discipline (Mt 18:15-20). 

This is why it’s so important to keep the main things the main things. In other words, it’s the theme I’m laboring through this 10-part series on foundations. We need to get back to the basics and not get sidetracked and derailed via tangents. Wisdom demands discerning what’s most important and what is less important, and knowing how to divide one’s limited energies. 

Just two passages for today: 

First is Hebrews 6:17-18, “So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath, 18 so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us.”

Second is James 1:17, Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.” 

Encouragement: An essential part of getting one’s worldview right is getting God right. There is—in every worldview—a God of the system. But in the biblical worldview alone, you have a God is both transcendent, holy, unchanging, and relational. He is both “holy, holy, holy,” steadfast, and is trinitarian/relational, not a God in need who has to create out of some want or lack. 

The fact that God who needs nothing, lacks nothing, and is nothing other than perfection in and of Himself, but has both made Himself known and has come to save sinners is inexhaustibly good news (εὐαγγέλιον, euaggelion). This is why we need to go back, read the old saints, learn the Patristics, study history, so that we don’t run afoul and become chronological snobs who neglect the wisdom of the past. God is unchangingly perfect and loving and just. He does not “evolve on any issue.” He is fixed, steadfast, and is the only Anchor for objective rationality and human flourishing.